Protecting Data Memory in a Signal Processing System

ABSTRACT

Data memory protection is provided for a signal processing system such as a radar system in which the data memory is protected with a common set of parity bits rather than requiring a set of parity bits for each memory word as in Error Correction Coded (ECC) memories. The common set of parity bits may be updated as memory words in the data memory are accessed as part of signal processing of one or more digital signals. The memory protection ensures that in the absence of memory errors the common parity bits are zero at the end of processing the digital signals as long as each word in the data memory that is used for storing the signal processing data is written and read an equal number of times.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE Field of the Disclosure

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to signalprocessing systems, and more specifically relate to protecting signaldata memory in signal processing systems.

Description of the Related Art

The use of embedded Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radarsystems in automotive applications is evolving rapidly. For example,embedded FMCW radar systems may be used in a number of applicationsassociated with a vehicle such as adaptive cruise control, collisionwarning, blind spot warning, lane change assist, parking assist and rearcollision warning. In order to be used in automotive applications, anembedded FMCW radar system is required to meet stringent functionalsafety requirements. Functional safety in automotive radar is theprevention of harm to humans due to failure of components in the radar.Meeting these requirements necessitates the inclusion of variousprotection mechanisms in the radar system that minimize or eliminatefailures due to malfunction of components such as, for example, anyprocessors, digital logic, and memory incorporated in the radar system.Other signal processing systems may also include similar protectionmechanisms when used in environments with stringent functional safetyrequirements.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatusfor protection of signal data memory in signal processing systems suchas, for example, radar systems. In one aspect, a signal processingsystem comprising is provided that includes a data memory componentconfigured to store values corresponding to signal processing of atleast one digital signal, a plurality of parity bits associated with thedata memory component, the plurality of parity bits including a set ofgroup parity bits for each group of memory words of a plurality ofgroups of memory words in the data memory component, a processor coupledto receive the at least one digital signal, the processor configured toperform the signal processing of the at least one digital signal and tocheck the plurality of parity bits for a memory error, and a paritymanagement component coupled to the plurality of parity bits and coupledto receive an address of a memory word in the data memory component anda value read from or written to the memory word by the processor duringthe signal processing, the parity management component configured toupdate group parity bits in the plurality of parity bits correspondingto the address of the memory word based on the value.

In one aspect, a method for data memory protection in a signalprocessing system is provided that includes dividing memory words of adata memory of the signal processing system into a plurality of groups,in which a plurality of parity bits associated with the data memoryincludes a set of group parity bits for each group of the plurality ofgroups, performing signal processing on a least one digital signal, inwhich each memory word of a plurality of memory words of the data memoryis written and read such that for each write of a value to a memory wordof the plurality of memory words, group parity bits corresponding to agroup of the memory word are updated based on the value and a singleread of the value from the memory word is performed in which the groupparity bits are updated based on the value, and determining whether asoft error has occurred based on the plurality of parity bits.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Particular embodiments will now be described, by way of example only,and with reference to the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is an example illustrating the affect of a single soft error onmemory;

FIG. 2 is an example illustrating a radar data memory with a diagonalgrouping;

FIG. 3 is an example illustrating parity bit assignment for the radardata memory of FIG. 2 for protection against one soft error occurrence;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a method for updating parity words of aradar data memory;

FIG. 5 is an example illustrating parity bit assignment for the radardata memory of FIG. 2 for protection against two soft error occurrences;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a parity identification circuit;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a method for flow diagram of a method forupdating parity words of a radar data memory;

FIG. 8 is an example illustrating ordinality of memory words in a group;

FIG. 9 is an example illustrating the method of FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an example parity management component;

FIG. 11 is an example illustrating parity bit assignment for radar datamemory for protection against one soft error occurrence with a row wisememory grouping;

FIG. 12 is an example illustrating parity bit assignment for radar datamemory for protection against two soft error occurrences with a row wisememory grouping;

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of a method for protection of a radar datamemory in a radar system, and

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an example Frequency Modulated ContinuousWave (FMCW) radar system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE DISCLOSURE

Specific embodiments of the disclosure will now be described in detailwith reference to the accompanying figures. Like elements in the variousfigures are denoted by like reference numerals for consistency.

A Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar transmits, via one ormore transmit antennas, a radio frequency (RF) frequency ramp referredto as a chirp. Further, multiple chirps may be transmitted in a unitreferred to as a frame. The transmitted chirps are reflected from anyobjects in the field of view (FOV) the radar and are received by one ormore receive antennas. The received signal for each receive antenna isdown-converted to an intermediate frequency (IF) signal and thendigitized. The digitized samples are pre-processed and stored in memory,which is referred to as radar data memory herein. Once the data for anentire frame is stored in the radar data memory, the data ispost-processed to detect any objects in the FOV and to identify therange, velocity and angle of arrival of detected objects.

The pre-processing may include performing a range Fast Fourier Transform(FFT) on the digitized samples of each reflected chirp to convert thedata to the frequency domain. Peak values correspond to ranges(distances) of objects. This processing is usually performed in-line,meaning that the range FFT is performed on the digitized samples of aprevious chirp while samples are being collected for the current chirp.The results of the range FFTs for each receive antenna are saved in theradar data memory for further processing. K₁ range results are storedfor the chirp. Thus, if there are K₂ chirps in a frame, an array ofK₁×K₂ range values is generated by the range FFTs. In this array, eachof the K₁ columns corresponds to a specific range value across the K₂chirps. Note that K₁×K₂ range values are generated for each receivechannel in the system.

For each range, a Doppler FFT is performed over each of thecorresponding range values of the chirps in the frame. That is, aDoppler FFT is performed on each of the K₁ columns of the K₁×K₂ array.The peaks in the resulting K₁×K₂ range-Doppler array correspond to therange and relative speed (velocity) of potential objects. To perform theDoppler FFTs, each column of range values is read from the radar datamemory and a Doppler FFT is performed on the range values of the column.The Doppler FFT values may be stored back in the same column memorylocations.

After the Doppler FFTs, other post-processing, e.g., object detectionand angle estimation, may be performed on the K₁×K₂ range-Doppler arraystored the radar data memory to detect objects in the FOV and toidentify the range, velocity and angle of arrival of detected objects.Once the post-processing is complete, the data in the radar data memorycan be discarded.

Note that all the digitized data corresponding to a frame is required tobe in the radar data memory before the post-processing such as DopplerFFT, angle estimation, object detection, etc., can begin. Further,resolution expectations, i.e., range resolution, which is controlled bythe number of digitized samples per chirp, velocity resolution, which iscontrolled by the number of chirps per frame, and angle resolution,which is controlled by the number of receive antennas, directly impactthe size of the radar data memory. In the automotive radar applicationspace, the current radar data memory size needed is on the order of oneto two megabytes (MB) and is expected to increase in coming years asincreased resolution is demanded.

As was previously mentioned, the functional safety requirements for useof an embedded radar system in automotive applications necessitate theincorporation of protection mechanisms for various components of thesystem. Radar data memory is one of the components that need aneffective protection mechanism. Soft errors, which change the value ofone or more bits in a memory location, are one category of memory errorthat is of concern. Soft errors may be caused by radiation orradioactive particles striking a memory cell causing the cell to changestate, i.e., a ‘1’ changes to a ‘0’ or vice-versa.

The current industry solution for soft error protection is using ErrorCorrection Coded (ECC) memory. In an ECC memory, each word in memory isprotected by a set of parity bits. Whenever data is written to aspecific memory word, the parity value corresponding to this data arecomputed and stored in the associated parity bits. When the memory wordis read, the parity value is recomputed and validated against the storedparity value. Any difference between the stored and recomputed parityvalues indicates the presence of bit errors.

Depending on the specific parity code used, the parity bits can be usedeither to detect bit errors or to detect and correct bit errors. Sometypical ECC memories use an extended Hamming code parity scheme with thecapability to correct a single bit error and detect up to two bit errorsin a word. The number of parity bits needed for an extended Hamming codescheme depends on the length of the memory word. For example, a sixteenbit memory word would require six parity bits and a thirty-two bitmemory word would require seven parity bits.

The size of a memory word in ECC memory is chosen as the smallest unitin which data is expected to be read/written. In the context of theradar data memory, the memory word size is based on the typical size ofa complex sample, e.g., 32 bits. Thus implementing an extended Hammingcode parity scheme for radar data memory would require an overhead ofseven bits for every thirty-two bits, which is an overhead ofapproximately 22%. Thus, approximately 400 KB (kilobytes) of overheadwould be needed for 2 MB of radar data memory. This is a significantamount of overhead for cost-sensitive embedded radar solutions.

Embodiments of the disclosure provide an alternate technique for radardata memory protection with minimal overhead. This memory protectiontechnique is based on two key observations regarding radar data memory.One observation is that most accesses to radar data memory are notrandom. Instead, there is a well defined write phase duringpre-processing of received signals corresponding to a frame of chirps inwhich range values are stored in the memory. This write phase isfollowed by a read phase during post-processing of the stored rangevalues in which all the range values are read, although not in the sameorder in which the values were stored. The other observation is thaterror correction is not very important for radar data memory. Errordetection is sufficient because the data read and written in radar datamemory is independent from one frame of chirps to the next. If a memoryerror is detected during post-processing, the data in the memory can bediscarded.

Embodiments of the radar data memory protection technique provide forprotection of the entire radar data memory with a common set of paritybits rather than requiring a set of parity bits for each memory word asin ECC memories. These common parity bits may be updated each time aword in the radar data memory is read or written as part of the radardata processing. As is explained in more detail herein, the protectiontechnique ensures that in the absence of memory errors the common paritybits are zero at the end of processing the radar data corresponding to aframe of chirps as long as each word in the radar data memory that isused for storing the radar data is written and read an equal number oftimes. A non-zero value in any of the common parity bits at the end ofprocessing indicates at least one memory error.

In embodiments of the radar data memory protection, radar data memory isdivided into non-overlapping groups and each group is protected by a setof parity bits in the common parity bits. In some embodiments, thegrouping is selected to ensure that a single soft error affects amaximum of one word per group. The parity check technique used is basedon the number of soft errors to be protected against. For example, as isexplained in more detail herein, a simple check sum scheme may be usedif single soft error protection is needed while a Hamming code schememay be used if protection for two soft errors is needed.

As previously mentioned, a soft error is a radiation induced bit flip inmemory. As is illustrated in the example of FIG. 1, a single soft errorcan cause bit errors in multiple adjacent bits in memory, both row-wiseand column-wise, thus multiple adjacent bits in a single word as well asmultiple column-wise adjacent words can be in affected by a single softerror. In the example of FIG. 1, a single soft error has affected fourcolumn-wise adjacent 8-bit words, with four affected adjacent bits ineach word. The example of FIG. 1 assumes that the maximum number ofadjacent bit affected and the maximum number of column-wise adjacentwords affected is four.

In some embodiments of the radar data memory protection, the radar datamemory is divided into M non-overlapping groups where the value of M ischosen such that a single soft error affects no more than one word pergroup. In some embodiments, the maximum number of adjacent bits in asingle word and the maximum number of column-wise adjacent wordsaffected by a single soft error are the same and M is set to be thismaximum number. In some embodiments, the maximum number of adjacent bitsaffected and the maximum number of column-wise adjacent words affectedis not the same and M is set to be the larger of the two numbers. Notethat the maximum number of adjacent bits affected and the maximum numberof column-wise adjacent words affected may increase as the level ofminiaturization increases. In other words, the value of M depends onfactors such as the physics of the memory device and the memoryarchitecture.

For simplicity of explanation, radar data memory protection is initiallydescribed in reference to the examples of FIGS. 2, 3, 5, and FIGS. 8-10,which assume M=4, a 32-bit memory word, and a direct memory access (DMA)controller that can transfer up to four consecutive 32-bit words in acycle. In these examples, each cell represents a 32-bit word and thecells are “shaded” to indicate group assignment. To avoid memorystalling and throughput less, the words are grouped diagonally such thatfour adjacent words both row-wise and column-wise are in differentgroups. The diagonal grouping depicted in the examples is from top-leftto bottom right. As will be understood by one of ordinary skill in theart based on the description herein, such a grouping ensures that noparity word needs to be updated more than once per memory cycle. FIG. 2is an example illustrating a radar data memory 200 with a diagonalgrouping. Each memory cell is “shaded” to indicate group assignment.Each memory cell is also numbered for descriptive purposes.

Each of the M groups is protected by a set of parity bits, which may bereferred to as group parity bits herein. The number of parity bitsneeded for each group and how the parity bits are updated during memoryaccesses depends on the functional safety requirements of the particularapplication of the radar system. In some embodiments, the memoryprotection protects against a single soft error occurrence during theprocessing of radar data for a frame of chirps. In such embodiments, aparity bit is allocated for the protection of each bit position of thewords assigned to a group. For example, for a 32-bit memory word, thereare 32 bit positions and thus, a 32-bit parity word is needed for eachgroup. Thus, M 32-bit parity words are needed. Further, as is explainedin more detail in reference to the method of FIG. 4, the value stored inthe associated parity word is essentially the checksum of the memorygroup.

FIG. 3 is an example illustrating this parity bit assignment for theradar data memory 200. In this example, the memory words 1, 5, 10, 14, .. . , 55, 60, 64 are assigned to the same group. The M×M area 300illustrates an example portion of memory that may be affected by asingle soft error. As the area 300 shows, dividing radar data memoryinto M groups in this manner ensures that the single soft error affectsno more than one word per group. On the right side of FIG. 3, the memorywords for this group are stacked vertically for illustration and theassociated 32-bit parity word is shown below the stack. An examplecolumn 302 of bits at an illustrative bit position in each word of thegroup along with the associated parity bit in the parity word is alsoshown.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a method for updating parity words of aradar data memory assuming the above described memory protection for asingle soft error. The method is performed for a read or a write of amemory word in the radar data memory. When a memory word is accessed,the row and column coordinates in the radar data memory of the memoryword are determined 400 based on the address of the memory word. The rownumber of an address may be computed as R=floor(Address/NumColumns) andthe column number of an address may be computed as C=mod(Address,NumColumns) where NumColumns is the number of columns in the radar datamemory and the function mod refers to the modulo operator in which theresult of mod(a, b) is the remainder of a divided by b. In the aboveequation, the memory words are assumed to be addressed horizontallyacross rows. Further the address of the memory word, the row number R,and the column number C are enumerated from zero. The number of columnsand rows of a memory are determined by the memory design.

The group index of the memory word is then determined 402 based on therow and column coordinates. Assuming the groups are indexed 0, 1, . . ., M−1, an index identifying the group of the memory word, group_idx, maybe computed as per

group_idx=mod(R−mod(C, M), M)

where R is the memory row number and C is the memory column number ofthe memory word. The group parity word, as identified by the groupindex, is then updated 404. More specifically, the parity wordidentified by the group index is updated by performing an XOR operationbetween the data of the memory word and the current contents of theidentified parity word.

In some embodiments, the memory protection protects against two softerror occurrences during the processing of radar data for a frame ofchirps. Thus, up to two words in each group may be affected by the softerrors. FIG. 5 is an example illustrating the radar data memory 200affected by two soft errors designated by the M×M area 500 and the M×Marea 502. In this example, two words from each group are affected. Insuch embodiments, a set of P parity bits is allocated for the protectionof each bit position of the words assigned to a group. For example, fora 32-bit memory word, there are 32 bit positions, and thus P 32-bitparity words are needed for each group. Thus, M×P 32-bit parity wordsare needed. As is explained in more detail herein, the P parity bitscorrespond to a Hamming code that detects up to two bit errors.

FIG. 5 illustrates this parity bit assignment. In this example, thememory words 1, 5, 10, 14, . . . , 55, 60, 64 are assigned to the samegroup. On the right side of FIG. 5, the memory words for this group arestacked vertically for illustration and the associated P 32-bit paritywords are shown below the stack. An example column 504 of bits at anillustrative bit position in each word of the group along with theassociated parity bits in the parity words is also shown. Each suchcolumn of bits in a group is protected by a column of P parity bits.Thus, each column in a group can be viewed as a Hamming code word of Ndata bits where N is the number of memory words in the group and Pparity bits. Thus, the thirty-two columns of a group can be viewed asthirty-two Hamming code words each capable of detecting up to twoerrors.

A Hamming code is chosen because a Hamming code can detect up to two biterrors in a given input bit stream. For a given input bit stream of Nbits, a Hamming code computes P parity bits. The number of parity bits Pdepends on the number of input bits N and any suitable value of P may beused. In some embodiments, the value of P is chosen as the smallest Pthat satisfies the following relation: N>2^(P)−P−1.

Hamming encoders are generally described assuming that the N input bitsare a priori available to the encoder and can be used to determine theparity bits. However, in embodiments of the radar data memoryprotection, this will not be the case. The input stream to the Hammingcode is a stream of N words, i.e., the words in a group. Thus, theparity bits need to be determined as individual memory words in the Ninput words are accessed. Further, the memory access pattern is notpre-determined which means that the words in a group cannot be assumedto be accessed in any specific order. Embodiments of the radar memoryprotection thus implement a technique for updating the parity bits ofthe Hamming code that does not assume all N words of a group areavailable at a given time or that the N words are accessed in anyparticular order.

Consider a Hamming encoder that takes in a sequence of N input bits tocompute P parity bits. A Hamming code has the property that, in theprocess of computing the parity bits, every bit in the input bitsequence is required to update a unique subset of the P parity bits thatincludes at least two parity bits. For example, the first input bitupdates parity bits 1 and 2, the second input bit updates parity bits 1and 3, the third input updates parity bits 2 and 3, the 4^(th) input bitupdates parity bits 1, 2, and 3, etc. Thus, the subset of parity bitsupdated by a specific input bit depends on the ordinality of that inputbit.

More specifically, let G be the ordered sequence of numbers in whicheach number in the sequence has a binary representation including two ormore one bits, i.e.,

G={3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, . . . }.

This sequence is essentially all numbers that are not powers of two. Theset of parity bits associated with the kth bit in the input stream isgiven by the binary representation of G(k), i.e., by the binaryrepresentation of the number in the kth position in sequence G, k>0. Forexample, if k=5, then G(k)=9=1001, thus indicating that 5th input bit isassociated with parity bits 1 and 4.

Further, G(k) can be computed as per

G(k)=L(L(k)+k)+k

where L(n) is a function that outputs the index of the left mostnon-zero bit of the binary representation of n. For example, L(9) is 4and L(18) is 5. If k=4, L(k)=3, L(L(k)+k)=L(3+4)=L(7)=3, andL(L(k)+k)+k=3+4=7. Thus, G(4)=7 and given the binary representation ofseven is 0111, this indicates that the parity bits to be updated areparity bits 1, 2, and 3.

FIG. 6 illustrates a parity identification circuit 600 that may beimplemented in a radar system to determine G(k) as per the aboveequation. The input to the identification circuit 600 is the binaryrepresentation of k and the output is a P-bit parity register 608. Thecomponents L1 602 and L2 606 each output the binary representation ofthe index of the left most non-zero bit of the binary representation ofthe input to the respective component. The adder 604 coupled between thecomponents L1 602 and L2 606 adds the output of the L1 component 602 tothe binary representation of k and provides the result to the L2component 606. The adder 607 coupled to the output of the component L2606 adds the output of the 12 component 606 to the binary representationof k and provides the result to the parity register 608. The componentsL1 602 and L2 606 may be implemented using any suitable circuit design.Some suitable circuit designs that may be used are described in V.Oklobdzija, “An Algorithmic and Novel Design of a Leading Zero DetectorCircuit: Comparison with Logic Synthesis”, IEEE Transactions on VeryLarge Scale integration(VLSI) Systems, Vol. 2, No. 1, March 1994, pp.124-128.

The input to L1 602 is k, and the input to L2 606 is the output of L1added to k. The output of L2 606 is again added to k to produce thefinal result, i.e., G(k). The bit representation of this final result isstored in the parity register 608. The indices of the non-zero bits inthe parity register 608 identify the parity bits associated with theinput bit of ordinality k. For example, if k=5, the parity register 608will contain the bit sequence 10010 . . . 0, thus indicating that paritybits 1 and 4 are associated with the 5^(th) input bit.

The above description illustrated updating P parity bits based on asequence of N input bits. In the case of radar data memory, P paritywords associated with N input memory words are updated, where N is thenumber of memory words in a group. As is explained in more detail inreference to the method of FIG. 6, when a word of the N words of a groupis accessed, the subset of parity words of the P parity words that areassociated with the word may be identified in a similar fashion to thebit identification process described above once the ordinality of theword in the group is determined. In other words, G(k) where k is theordinality of a word in a group identifies which of the parity words forthe group are to be updated.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a method for updating parity words of aradar data memory assuming the above described Hamming code. The methodis performed for a read or a write of a memory word in the radar datamemory. The method is explained in reference to the examples of FIG. 8and FIG. 9 and assumes the grouping of the previous examples. Referringnow to FIG. 7, when a memory word is accessed, i.e., read or written, inthe radar data memory, e.g., the radar data memory 800 of FIG. 8, therow and column coordinates in the radar data memory of the memory wordare determined 700 based on the address of the memory word.Determination of row and column coordinates is previously describedherein.

The group index of the memory word is determined 702 based on the rowand column coordinates. Assuming the groups are indexed 0, 1, . . . ,M−1, an index identifying the group of the memory word, group_idx, maybe computed as per

group_idx=mod(R−mod(C, M), M)

where R is the memory row number and C is the memory column number ofthe memory word.

The ordinality k of the memory word in the group to which the word isassigned is determined 704 based on the row and column coordinates. Theordinality k may be computed as per

k=(numRows/M)×C+floor(R/M)+1

where C is the column coordinate of the memory word, R is the rowcoordinate of the memory word, and numRows is the number of rows in theradar data memory. The example of FIG. 8 illustrates the ordinality 1,2, . . . N 801 of words in a group for the radar data memory 800.

The subset of parity words of the group parity words corresponding tothe memory word are determined 706 given the ordinality k of the memoryword. That is, G(k) is determined. In some embodiments, G(k) may becomputed as per the above equation for G(k). In some embodiments, G(k)may be determined by a parity identification circuit such as that ofFIG. 6.

The identified parity words are then updated 708. As was previouslyexplained, the particular parity words of the group parity words areidentified by the non-zero bit position of the binary representation ofG(k). Given G(k) and the group index, the identified parity words in thegroup parity words are updated by performing an XOR operation betweenthe data of the memory word and the current contents of the identifiedparity words.

FIG. 9 is an example illustrating the above method. This figure shows aradar data memory 900 divided into groups and the parity words 902associated with each group. Assuming a 32-bit word, e.g., 110 . . . 1011is to be written into the radar data memory at a specified address. Asper the steps of the above method, the address is used to identify therow and column of the memory word where this value is to be stored. Theordinality k of the memory word within the group and the groupidentifier are determined based on the row and column. In this example,the memory word is identified as belonging to the group with a groupindex of 1. The ordinality k is then used to identify the subset ofparity words corresponding to the group that should be updated based onwriting the word into memory. The identified parity words are thenupdated by performing an XOR operation between each of the identifiedparity words and the data value 110 . . . 1011.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an example parity managementcomponent 1000 implementing an embodiment of the above describedtechnique for protecting radar data memory against two soft errors. Thisexample assumes M=4, a memory word is 32 bits, and a radar data memorysize of 2 MB. Thus, N=2 MB/4/M=131072, and the value of P may be chosen,for example, as per the previously described relation, i.e., P=18. GivenP=18, eighteen 32-bit parity words are needed per group for a total ofM*18=72 parity words or 288 bytes.

The parity management component 1000 includes a parity data component1002, a parity word identification component 1004, and a parity memory1006. The parity data component 1002 receives the address ADDR of a wordin the radar data memory that is read or written. The parity datacomponent 1002 includes functionality to determine the row and columncoordinates of the memory location identified by the address. The paritydata component 1002 further includes functionality to determine thegroup index of the memory word and the ordinality k of the memory wordin the group to which the word is assigned based on the row and columncoordinates. The parity data component 1002 is coupled to the paritymemory 1006 to provide the group index of the memory address and to theparity word identification component 1004 to provide the binaryrepresentation of the ordinality k of the memory address. Determinationof the row and column coordinates, the group index, and the ordinalityassuming a diagonal grouping assignment is previously described herein.

The parity word identification component 1004 includes functionality toidentify the parity words in a group that are to be updated based on theordinality k, i.e., functionality to determine G(k). Identification ofparity words based on ordinality is previously described herein. In someembodiments, the parity identification component 1004 includes thecircuitry of FIG. 6. The parity identification component 1004 is coupledto the parity memory 1006 to provide the binary value of G(k).

The parity memory 1006 includes sufficient memory to store the 72 paritywords and functionality to identify the subset of parity words assignedto a group based on the group index and the particular words in thegroup to be updated based on the binary value provided by the parityword identification component. The parity memory 1006 further includesfunctionality to receive the data corresponding to the address ADDR andto XOR that data with the parity words identified by the group index andthe non-zero bits in the binary value.

The parity memory 1006 may also be coupled to receive the value of anenable flag 1008. The value of this flag indicates whether or not parityis to be updated for the current memory access. As was mentionedpreviously, the radar data memory protection assumes that duringprocessing of data corresponding to a frame of chirps, each memorylocation is read and written an equal number of times. Morespecifically, for each write of a value to a memory word during whichparity is updated, a single read of the value from the memory wordduring which parity is also updated must be performed. Duringpost-processing, e.g., after the Doppler FFTs, there may be a need toread some of the data without updating the corresponding parity bits. Insuch instances, the value of this flag is set to indicate no parityupdates.

The example figures previously described assumed a diagonal pattern forgrouping radar data memory words. Other grouping techniques may be usedas long as the property that a single soft error can affect a maximum ofone word per group is preserved. FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 are examplesillustrating an alternate grouping pattern for a radar data memory 1100assuming M=4 and a 32-bit memory word in which memory words are assignedto groups by row.

FIG. 11 is an example illustrating parity bit assignment for protectionagainst a single soft error occurrence with this row-wise groupingpattern. In this example, memory words in rows 1, 4, and 7 are in thesame group. The M×M area 1102 illustrates an example portion of memorythat may be affected by a single soft error. As with the example of FIG.3, a parity bit is allocated for the protection of each of the 32 bitpositions. On the right side of FIG. 11, the memory words for theexample group are stacked vertically for illustration and the associated32-bit parity word is shown below the stack. An example column 1104 ofbits at an illustrative bit position in each word of the group alongwith the associated parity bit in the parity word is also shown. Themethod of FIG. 4 for single soft error protection may be used with arow-wise grouping with a modification to the way the group index isdetermined.

FIG. 12 is an example illustrating parity bit as for protection againsttwo soft errors using the row-wise grouping pattern. In this example,memory words in rows 1, 4, and 7 are in the same group. The M×M area1200 and the M×M area 1202 illustrate example portions of memory thatmay be affected by two soft errors. As with the example of FIG. 5, a setof P parity bits is allocated for the protection of each bit position ofthe words assigned to a group. On the right side of FIG. 12, the memorywords for the example group are stacked vertically for illustration andthe 32-bit parity words corresponding to the group are shown below thestack. An example column 1204 of bits at an illustrative bit position ineach word of the group along with the associated parity bits in theparity words is also shown. The method of FIG. 7 for protection from twosoft errors may be used with a row-wise grouping with some changes tothe group index and ordinality equations. More specifically, the groupindex may be computed as per

group_idx=mod(R,M)

and the ordinality k may be computed as per

k=NumColumns×floor(R/M)+C.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of a method for protection of a radar datamemory in a radar system such as, for example, the radar system of FIG.14. This method may be performed during the processing of the radar datacorresponding to a frame of chirps. Prior to storing data in the radardata memory, all the parity words are initialized 1300 to zero. Aspre-processing of digitized IF signals is performed, i.e., as range FFTsare applied to the incoming digitized samples to generate range values,each range value is stored 1302 in a memory word in the radar datamemory and the parity bits corresponding to the memory word are updated1304. The storing of range values and the parity updating continuesuntil range FFTs are complete 1305, i.e., the pre-processing iscompleted.

Once all of the range values corresponding to the frame are stored 1305in the radar data memory, the post-processing is initiated. During thepost-processing, Doppler FFTs are performed in which each column ofrange values is read 1306 from the radar data memory, a Doppler FFTperformed on the range values, and the resulting Doppler FFT values arewritten 1310 in the radar data memory in the memory locations thatstored the column of range values. The parity bits corresponding to eachmemory word of the column of range values are updated 1308 when thecolumn of range values is read. Similarly, the parity bits correspondingto each memory word where a value of the Doppler FFT is stored areupdated 1312 when the value is written to the memory word.

Once the Doppler FFTs are complete 1314, parity updates are disabled1316, and some of the data is read 1318 from the radar data memory tocomplete the post processing, e.g., to detect objects and to identifythe range, velocity and angle of arrival of detected objects. Once thepost processing is complete, parity updates are enabled 1320.

Each memory word in the radar data memory that was used to store radardata during the pre and post processing is then read 1322 to trigger anupdate 1322 of the corresponding parity bits. Note that once this stepis complete, the memory words have been read and written an equal numberof times for parity updating. The parity bits are then checked 1324 fora memory error. If all the parity bits are zero 1324, no error hasoccurred; otherwise, a memory error is signaled 1326.

The updating of the parity bits corresponding to a memory word may beperformed using the method of FIG. 4 if an embodiment of single softerror memory protection as described is implemented by the radar system.The updating of the parity bits corresponding to a memory word may beperformed using the method of FIG. 7 if an embodiment of two soft errormemory protection as described herein is implemented by the radarsystem.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an example FMCW radar system 1400configured to perform radar data memory protection as described herein.In this embodiment, the radar system is a radar integrated circuit (IC)suitable for use in embedded applications. The radar IC 1400 may includemultiple transmit channels 1404 for transmitting FMCW signals andmultiple receive channels 1402 for receiving the reflected transmittedsignals. Any suitable number of receive channels and transmit channelsand the number of receive channels and the number of transmit channelsmay differ.

A transmit channel includes a suitable transmitter and antenna. Areceive channel includes a suitable receiver and antenna. Further, eachof the receive channels 1402 are identical and include a low-noiseamplifier (LNA) 1405, 1407 to amplify the received radio frequency (RF)signal, a mixer 1406, 1408 to mix the transmitted signal with thereceived signal to generate an intermediate frequency (IF) signal(alternatively referred to as a dechirped signal, beat signal, or rawradar signal), a baseband bandpass filter 1410, 1412 for filtering thebeat signal, a variable gain amplifier (VGA) 1414, 1416 for amplifyingthe filtered IF signal, and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 1418,1420 for converting the analog IF signal to a digital IF signal.

The receive channels 1402 are coupled to a digital front end (DFE)component 1422 to provide the digital IF signals to the DFE 1422. TheDFE includes functionality to perform decimation filtering on thedigital IF signals to reduce the sampling rate and bring the signal backto baseband. The DFE 1422 may also perform other operations on thedigital IF signals, e.g., DC offset removal. The DFE 1422 is coupled tothe signal processor component 1444 to transfer the output of the DFE1422 to the signal processor component 1444.

The signal processor component 1444 is configured to perform signalprocessing on the digital IF signals of a frame of radar data to detectany objects in the FOV of the radar system 1400 and to identify therange, velocity and angle of arrival of detected objects. The signalprocessor component 1444 is coupled to the radar data storage component1424 to read and write data to the radar data memory 1426 during thesignal processing.

To perform the signal processing, e.g., the previously describedpre-processing and post processing, the signal processor component 1444executes software instructions stored in the memory component 1448.These software instructions may include instructions to check the paritybits of the radar data storage component 1424 for memory errors afterprocessing data corresponding to a frame of chirps. Further, thesoftware instructions may cause the results of the signal processing tobe ignored if a memory error is indicated.

The signal processor component 1444 may include any suitable processoror combination of processors. For example, the signal processorcomponent 1444 may be a digital signal processor, an MCU, an FFT engine,a DSP+MCU processor, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

The radar data storage component 1424 provides protected radar datastorage according to an embodiment of the radar data memory protectiontechniques described herein. The radar data storage component 1424includes a parity management component 1425 and a radar data memorycomponent 1426. The radar data memory component 1426 may be any suitablerandom access memory (RAM), e.g., static RAM. The radar data memorycomponent 1426 includes sufficient memory to store radar datacorresponding to the largest expected frame of chirps.

The parity management component 1425 implements parity updating for theradar data memory component 1426. In some embodiments, the paritymanagement component 1425 implements an embodiment of the previouslydescribed parity scheme for protection against a single soft error inthe radar data memory component 1426. In such embodiments, a parity bitis allocated for the protection of each bit position of the memory wordsassigned to a group. Thus, if a memory word is N_(w) bits, N_(w) paritybits are needed for a group. The parity management component 1425includes sufficient storage for the N_(w)-bit parity information foreach group. Further, the parity management component 1425 includesfunctionality to implement an embodiment of the method for updatingparity words of FIG. 4.

In some embodiments, the parity management component 1425 implements anembodiment of the previously described parity scheme for protectionagainst two soft errors in the radar data memory component 1426. In suchembodiments, as previously described, a column of parity bits isallocated for the protection of each bit position column of the memorywords assigned to a group. Thus, if a memory word is N_(w) bits, N_(w)columns of parity bits are needed for a group. The number of parity bitsP in a column of parity bits depends on the number of memory words in agroup. The choice of the value of P is previously described herein.Thus, P* N_(w) parity bits are needed for a group. The parity managementcomponent 1425 includes sufficient storage for the P* N_(w)-bit parityinformation for each group. Further, the parity management component1425 includes functionality to implement an embodiment of the method forupdating parity words of FIG. 7. In some embodiments, the paritymanagement component 1425 may be implemented as per the paritymanagement component 1000 of FIG. 10 appropriately configured for theamount of memory in the radar data memory component 1426.

In some embodiments, the parity management component 1425 includes aninput for an enable flag (not shown). In such embodiments, the paritymanagement component 1425 performs parity updates when words of theradar data memory component 1426 are read or written unless this flag isset to indicate parity updates are not to be performed. The signalprocessing software executed by the signal processing component 1444 mayset this flag as needed during the processing of the data correspondingto a frame of chirps to ensure that the parity bits corresponding toeach memory word are updated by an equal number of reads and writes. Forexample, as described in reference to the method of FIG. 13, the parityupdating may be disabled during part of the post-processing.

The on-chip memory component 1448 provides on-chip storage, e.g., acomputer readable medium that may be used, for example, to communicatedata between the various components of the radar IC 1400, to storesoftware programs executed by processors on the radar IC 1400, etc. Theon-chip memory component 1448 may include any suitable combination ofread-only memory and/or random access memory (RAM), e.g., static RAM.

The direct memory access (DMA) component 1446 is coupled to the radardata storage component 1424 to perform data transfers between the radardata memory 1426 and the signal processor component 1444.

The control component 1427 includes functionality to control theoperation of the radar IC 1400. The control component 1427 may include,for example, an MCU that executes software to control the operation ofthe radar IC 1400.

The serial peripheral interface (SPI) 1428 provides an interface forexternal communication of the results of the radar signal processing.For example, the results of the signal processing performed by thesignal processor component 1444 may be communicated to another processorfor application specific processing such as object tracking, rate ofmovement of objects, direction of movement, etc.

The programmable timing engine 1442 includes functionality to receivechirp parameter values for a sequence of chirps in a radar frame fromthe control module 1427 and to generate chirp control signals thatcontrol the transmission and reception of the chirps in a frame based onthe parameter values. The chirp parameters are defined by the radarsystem architecture and may include, for example, a transmitter enableparameter for indicating which transmitters to enable, a chirp frequencystart value, a chirp frequency slope, an analog-to-digital (ADC)sampling time, a ramp end time, a transmitter start time, etc.

The radio frequency synthesizer (RFSYNTH) 1430 includes functionality togenerate FMCW signals for transmission based on chirp control signalsfrom the timing engine 1442. In some embodiments, the RFSYNTH 1430includes a phase locked loop (PLL) with a voltage controlled oscillator(VCO).

The multiplexor 1432 is coupled to the RFSYNTH 1430 and the input buffer1436. The multiplexor 1432 is configurable to select between signalsreceived in the input buffer 1436 and signals generated by the RFSYNTH1430. The output buffer 1438 is coupled to the multiplexor 1432 and maybe used, for example, to transmit signals selected by the multiplexor1432 to the input buffer of another radar IC.

The clock multiplier 1440 increases the frequency of the transmissionsignal to the frequency of the mixers 1406, 1408. The clean-up PLL(phase locked loop) 1434 operates to increase the frequency of thesignal of an external low frequency reference clock (not shown) to thefrequency of the RFSYNTH 1434 and to filter the reference clock phasenoise out of the clock signal.

Other Embodiments

While the disclosure has been described with respect to a limited numberof embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of thisdisclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised whichdo not depart from the scope of the disclosure as disclosed herein.

For example, embodiments have been described herein assuming that thenumber of groups of radar data memory words is four, i.e., M=4. One ofordinary skill in the art will understand embodiments in which number ofgroups is more or less than four.

In another example, embodiments have been described herein assuming thatno bit packing or memory compression is used such that a subset of bitsin a memory word is accessed. One of ordinary skill in the art willunderstand embodiments in which bit packing/memory compression is used.For example, the data used for parity updating may be zero filled toavow the XOR operation with the full parity word. For example, if bits 8to 15 of a 32 bit word are accessed, the 32-bit data used for parityupdating can include these bits with zeros in the other bit positions.In another example, only the parity bits corresponding to the bitsaccessed are updated. For example, if bits 8 to 15 of a 32-bit word areaccessed, then bits 8 to 15 of the parity word or words are updated.

In another example, embodiments have been described herein assuming adiagonal grouping form top left to bottom right. One of ordinary skillin the art will understand embodiments in which the diagonal grouping isfrom bottom left to top right.

In another example, some embodiments have been described herein in whichthe radar system is an embedded radar system in a vehicle. One ofordinary skill in the art will understand embodiments for otherapplications of embedded radar systems, e.g., surveillance and securityapplications, maneuvering a robot in a factory or warehouse, etc.

In another example, some embodiments have been described herein in thecontext of an FMCW radar system. One of ordinary skill in the art willunderstand embodiments for other radar systems in which the signalprocessing of radar signals is performed such that each memory word iswritten and read an equal number of times.

In another example, embodiments of the memory protection have beendescribed herein in the context of an FMCW radar system. One of ordinaryskill in the art will understand embodiments for other signal processingsystems used in safety critical applications in which a large amount ofdata is stored for signal processing and the data accesses correspondingto the signal processing are such that an equal number of read and writeaccesses per memory word can be ensured, either with the parity enableflag (in some embodiments) or without the parity enable flag (in someembodiments).

In another example, embodiments have been described herein in whichmemory is grouped such that single soft error affects only one memoryword per group and a checksum based technique is used for protectingagainst a single soft error and a Hamming code technique is used forprotecting against two soft errors. One of ordinary skill in the artwill understand embodiments in which a less efficient memory wordgrouping is used. For example, a grouping may be used such that a singlesoft error affects two memory words in a group. One of ordinary skill inthe art will also understand embodiments in which a Hamming code may beused to protect against a single soft error.

Although method steps may be presented and described herein in asequential fashion, one or more of the steps shown in the figures anddescribed herein may be performed concurrently, may be combined, and/ormay be performed in a different order than the order shown in thefigures and/or described herein. Accordingly, embodiments should not beconsidered limited to the specific ordering of steps shown in thefigures and/or described herein.

Certain terms are used throughout the description and the claims torefer to particular system components. As one skilled in the art willappreciate, components in radar systems may be referred to by differentnames and/or may be combined in ways not shown herein without departingfrom the described functionality. This document does not intend todistinguish between components that differ in name but not function. Inthe description and in the claims, the terms “including” and“comprising” are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should beinterpreted to mean “including, but not limited to . . . .” Also, theterm “couple” and derivatives thereof are intended to mean an indirect,direct, optical, and/or wireless electrical connection. Thus, if a firstdevice couples to a second device, that connection may be through adirect electrical connection, through an indirect electrical connectionvia other devices and connections, through an optical electricalconnection, and/or through a wireless electrical connection, forexample.

It is therefore contemplated that the appended claims will cover anysuch modifications of the embodiments as fail within the true scope ofthe disclosure.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. An apparatus, comprising: a parity memory componentassociated with a data memory component enabled to store a plurality ofparity bits including a set of group parity bits for each group ofmemory words of a plurality of groups of memory words in the data memorycomponent; and a parity management component coupled to the paritymemory component and enabled to receive an address of a memory word inthe data memory component and a data read from or written to the memoryword during signal processing, the parity management componentconfigured to update group parity bits in the plurality of parity bitsstored in the parity memory component corresponding to the address ofthe memory word based on the data.
 22. The apparatus of claim 21, inwhich the plurality of groups are non-overlapping groups of memory wordsin which a single soft error can affect only one memory word per group.23. The apparatus of claim 21, in which the signal processing isconfigured to write and read each memory word of a plurality of memorywords of the data memory such that for each write of a data to a memoryword location (or address or position) of the plurality of memory words,group parity bits corresponding to a group of the memory words areupdated based on the data and a single read of the data from the memoryword location (or address or position) is performed in which the groupparity bits are updated based on the data.
 24. The apparatus of claim23, in which the parity management component is coupled to receive aparity enable flag indicating whether or not parity updates are enabled,and in which the signal processing is configured to manage the parityenable flag to ensure that for each write of a data to a memory wordlocation (or address or position) with parity updates enabled, a singleread of the data from the memory word location (or address or position)is performed with parity updates enabled.
 25. The apparatus of claim 21,in which the apparatus is a radar system and at least one digital signalreceived by the apparatus is a plurality of digital intermediatefrequency (IF) signals generated by a plurality of receive channels ofthe radar system, each receive channel configured to receive a reflectedsignal from transmission of a frame of chirps and to generate a digitalIF signal of samples of the reflected signal.
 26. The apparatus of claim25, in which the signal processing is configured to: write first datacorresponding to the plurality of digital IF signals into a plurality ofmemory word locations (or addresses or positions) in the data memory, inwhich, for each memory word of the plurality of memory word locations(or addresses or positions), the parity management component updates thegroup parity bits in the plurality of parity bits corresponding to agroup of the memory words based on the first data written in the memoryword locations (or addresses or positions); and read the first data fromthe plurality of memory word locations (or addresses or positions), inwhich, for each memory word of the plurality of memory word locations(or addresses or positions), the parity management component updates thegroup parity bits corresponding to the group of the memory words basedon et-the first data read from the memory word locations (or addressesor positions).
 27. The apparatus of claim 26, in which the signalprocessing is configured to: write second data corresponding to theplurality of digital IF signals into the plurality of memory wordlocations (or addresses or positions) in the data memory, in which foreach memory word in the plurality of memory word locations (or addressesor positions), group parity bits corresponding to the group of thememory words are updated based on the second data written into thememory word location (or address or position); read the second data fromthe plurality of memory word locations (or addresses or positions), inwhich for each memory word in the plurality of memory word locations (oraddresses or positions), the group parity bits corresponding to thegroup of the memory words are updated based on the second data read fromthe memory word location (or address or position); and perform signalprocessing on the second data to generate the first data.
 28. Theapparatus of claim 21, in which each set of group parity bits consistsof a parity bit for each bit position of a memory word.
 29. Theapparatus system of claim 21, in which each set of group parity bitsconsists of P parity hits for each bit position of a memory word, inwhich a value of P depends on a number of words N in a group, P and Nbeing positive integers greater than one.
 30. The apparatus of claim 29,in which the value of P is chosen as a smallest value that satisfiesN>2^(P)−P−1.
 31. The apparatus of claim 29, in which the paritymanagement component is configured to determine a subset of group paritybits corresponding to a memory word of a group based on ordinality ofthe memory word in the group.
 32. The apparatus of claim 31, in whichthe parity management component includes a parity identification circuitconfigured to determine the subset of group parity bits corresponding toa memory word of a group, the parity identification circuit including; afirst component coupled to receive a binary representation of theordinality of the memory word, the first component configured to outputa first binary representation of an index of a left most non-zero bit ofthe binary representation of the ordinality; a first adder coupled tothe first component to receive the first binary representation andcoupled to receive the binary representation of the ordinality, thefirst adder configured to output a second binary representation of a sumof the first binary representation and the binary representation of theordinality; a second component coupled to the first adder to receive thesecond binary representation, the second component configured to outputa third binary representation of an index of a left most non-zero bit ofthe second binary representation; and a second adder coupled to thesecond component to receive the third binary representation and coupledto receive the binary representation of the ordinality, the second adderconfigured to output a fourth binary representation of a sum of thethird binary representation and the binary representation of theordinality.
 33. A method for data memory protection in an apparatus, themethod comprising: dividing memory words of a data memory of theapparatus into a plurality of groups, in which a plurality of paritybits associated with the data memory includes a set of group parity bitsfor each group of the plurality of groups; and performing signalprocessing on a least one digital signal received by the apparatus, inwhich each memory word of a plurality of memory words of the data memoryis written and read such that for each write of data to a memory wordlocation (or address or position) of the plurality of memory words,group parity bits corresponding to a group of the memory word locations(or addresses or positions) are updated based on the data and a singleread of the data from the memory word is performed in which the groupparity bits are updated based on the read data.
 34. The method of claim3 further including determining whether a soft error has occurred basedon the plurality of parity bits.
 35. The method of claim 33, in whichthe plurality of groups are non-overlapping groups of memory words inwhich a single soft error can affect only one memory word per group. 36.The method of claim 35, in which each set of group parity bits consistsof a parity bit for each bit position of a memory word.
 37. The methodof claim 35, in which each set of group parity bits consists of P paritybits for each bit position of a memory word, in which a value of Pdepends on a number of words N in a group, P and N being positiveintegers greater than one.
 38. The method of claim 37, in which thevalue of P is chosen as a smallest value that satisfies N>2^(P)−P−1. 39.The method of claim 37, in which a subset of group parity bitscorresponding to a memory word of a group are determined based onordinality of the memory word in the group.
 40. The method of claim 33,in which performing signal processing includes disabling parity updatesto allow a read of the data from the memory word location (or address orposition) without changing the group parity bits.
 41. The method ofclaim 33, in which the apparatus is a radar system and the at least onedigital signal is a plurality of digital intermediate frequency (IF)signals generated by a plurality of receive channels in the radarsystem.
 42. The method of claim 41, in which performing signalprocessing includes: writing first data corresponding to signalprocessing of the digital IF signals into the plurality of memory wordlocations (or addresses or positions), in which for each memory word inthe plurality of memory words, group parity bits corresponding to agroup of the memory words are updated; and reading the first data fromthe plurality of memory word locations (or addresses or positions), inwhich for each memory word in the plurality of memory words, the groupparity bits corresponding to the group of the memory word are updated.43. The method of claim 42, in which performing signal processingincludes: writing second data corresponding to signal processing of thedigital IF signals into the plurality of memory word locations (oraddresses or positions), in which for each memory word in the pluralityof memory word locations (or addresses or positions), group parity bitscorresponding to the group of the memory word are updated; reading thesecond data from the plurality of memory word locations (or addresses orpositions), in which for each memory word in the plurality of memoryword locations (or addresses or positions), the group parity bitscorresponding to the group of the memory words are updated; andperforming signal processing on the second data to generate the firstdata.